“An unknown man armed with a knife, moving along the central streets of the city, attacked passers-by,” a police statement said. The police later shot and killed the attacker, the Russian authorities said. A statement from Russia’s Investigative Committee said the mid-day attack on a central street in Surgut said the suspect had been identified as a resident in his early 20s. Officials said there was no immediate information of the attacker’s motive.
Attack in Surgut, Siberia
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack but the Interior Ministry issued a statement saying that the suspect, a local man, had been “tentatively identified” and that “the theory that the attack was an act of terrorism is not the main one.” Instead, the officers were investigating the attack as attempted murder and even if the suspect was mentally ill. Surgut, about 1,300 miles east of Moscow, is in the Khanty-Mansiysk area of Siberia and has a population of more than 350,000.It is an oil- and gas-producing center. The militant Islamist group regularly claims links with attacks carried out in Europe but some cases may be for propagande purposes.
